Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Informed Marketplace

Greeting, gold fans! I had an experience today that made me think. something I thought I'd share with you all.

I was emptying some mail and posting some auctions today, and as I was doing so, I kept a bit of an eye on trade chat, as I always do. Someone asked if people weren't doing Dragon Soul anymore, which led to discussion of Mists coming out, which in turn led to a bit of talk about stockpiling.

Someone in trade chat said glyphs were a no go for stockpiling, because they were all changing and prime glyphs were being removed outright. I could have just let that comment be. Some would argue I should have. Instead, I made sure to correct this player, to let everyone in the conversation know that almost all of the old glyphs should be turning into new glyphs, so it was fine to stockpile them.

I even went a step further and told them to just be sure they did all their necessary trading down (if not the crafting itself) before the pre-expansion patch, since Blackfallow Ink won't be able to be traded down at that point. I got sincere thanks for the information from someone who was very glad to know their existing glyph recipes on their scribe wouldn't be useless. It was only then that something occurred to me: I may have just created more competition for myself.

It's a fine line, to be sure. Many gold makers like having their secrets. Some even feel the need to guard them jealously, believing they'd lose any market advantage if they got out.

I'd go out on a limb and say that most of us who write blogs about gold making don't fall into that category. We want to share our knowledge with our fellow players, to help everyone achieve success with us. Sure, the odds of any given user even being on the same server, let alone turning into direct competition, are small, but it's certainly a risk we take.

I think overall, an informed market is a good thing. It may not always immediately benefit me, but in the long run, the market grows, which is not only good for me, but for everyone.

Am I being too idealistic? What do you think? Do we need to keep secrets to remain profitable, or do we benefit more from an informed market? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.